


The one where Dan should have packed more tissues

by counting2fifteen, flymetomanchester, itsmyusualphannie (itsmyusualday)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-10 23:33:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20536451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/counting2fifteen/pseuds/counting2fifteen, https://archiveofourown.org/users/flymetomanchester/pseuds/flymetomanchester, https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsmyusualday/pseuds/itsmyusualphannie
Summary: Dan wants to ask Phil to marry him, but he wants Kath and Nigel's permission first.





	The one where Dan should have packed more tissues

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [phanfictionevents's](https://phanfictionevents.tumblr.com) telephone fic event. Flymetomanchester wrote the first part, itsmyusualphannie wrote the second part, and I (counting2fifteen) wrote the last part!
> 
> Honestly, I would not be shocked if this was the same prompt I got last time. Not that I'm complaining.

“I’ll see you next week then?” Phil asked Dan, looking up from where he was laying on the couch. 

Dan nodded and leaned down and kissed him. “If you want, I'll bring you something back from the shops back home then?” 

Phil nodded and smiled at him and Dan stood there momentarily admiring Phil. He couldn’t believe that their anniversary was soon coming up. More so he couldn’t believe that he hadn’t drove Phil away yet with all the shenanigans he pulls. With their three year anniversary coming up though, Dan didn’t want to stay boyfriends and play a guessing game anymore. He wanted to have a bigger future with Phil that wasn’t just in their apartment. He wanted kids, a house, a life with Phil. One that he could truly share every moment with. 

They said their goodbyes quickly and Dan grabbed his bags and headed out. Catching a cab, he started to feel a bit guilty. He wasn’t going back home for a week like he had told Phil to begin with. He was going to visit Phil’s mum actually. Which she didn’t know either. D beenasn’t sure if Phil got his inability to hide anything from Kath, but if that was the case, he wasn’t taking any chances.  
Time was going slow for Dan and it was aggravating. He just wanted to get there so maybe his nerves would stop and he could feel at peace with himself. He didn’t like lying to Phil, but he had a reason too. It would ruin everything if Phil found out. Well, it would just ruin the surprise. 

Phil had no idea in the following weeks they were going on holiday. He had no idea in the following weeks Dan would be proposing and hopefully they would be engaged and ready for the future.  
There was just one thing that was holding Dan back. He wanted to ask Kath first if he could marry Phil. He knew Phil sometimes liked things to be traditional. Dan wasn’t entirely for that, but for Phil he would do anything. 

It took a while before Dan arrived at Phil’s parents house. His palms were sweating as he stood outside and he hesitantly knocked on the door. He felt weird being there without Phil, he never had gone to his parents' house without him. Why would he? 

Standing there, he shuffled on his feet until the door open. 

“Oh, hello dear,” Kath said warmly and smiled at him, realizing Phil wasn’t there and a confused look came across her face. “Is Phil running behind?” 

Dan looked at and smiled nervously. “Uh no, I came by myself if that’s alright.” 

“Of course, it’s always nice to see you.” She invited Dan in and he sat his stuff down. It was weird being here without Phil. He could remember everything the two done in this house together. But he had a mission, and, one he was determined to fill. “Would you like anything to drink?” She asked, walking into the kitchen, motioning for Dan to follow. 

Following suite, Dan politely declined anything and sat down as Kath made herself a cup of tea. 

“What brings you all this way without Phil?” 

Dan bit his lip. “I um, I have something to ask you and Nigel.” Kath sat across from Dan momentarily. “I want to ask Phil to marry me.” He said nervously and looked down. “But not unless you guys say yes. Since you're his parents.” 

\---

Nigel, who had been sitting silently while Dan and Kath had settled at the kitchen table, glanced toward Kath with an eyebrow raised.

“Oh.” Kath looked surprised for a moment, then her face relaxed into a smile. “Oh, honey, are you serious?”

“Very,” Dan assured her hastily. “It’s just...I mean, I know I don’t need your permission, necessarily, but I’d like your blessing. I also, kind of, just wanted to let you both know that I’m even planning on marrying him. You’re incredibly important to us and...I know that you’d want to know first, too.”

Kath had lifted a hand to cover her mouth, her smile peeking through the edges of the attempt. She exchanged a glance with her husband, then turned back to Dan and reached out toward his nervously clasped hands. “Dan, dearheart, you know we love you. You’re the best possible person to have ever come into Phil’s life.”

“You make him happy,” Nigel added, the first he’d spoken since Dan had arrived.

Kath nodded in agreement. “And that’s what’s important. We want him to be happy - and not just him. We love you, too. You’re practically our son already.”

Dan could feel his breath judder in his chest. He tugged his hand free from Kath’s comforting grip to swipe ineffectually at his eyes.

“Nothing,” said Kath firmly, wrapping his fingers more tightly around his other, shaking hand, “nothing would make us happier to see you both happy together.”

Nigel leaned forward as well, offering a gentle pat to Dan’s knee. “What we’re saying here, Dan, is that we’d better get the best seats at your wedding.”

A partial laugh-sob broke free from Dan. He wiped once more at his eyes and met Kath’s eyes again, then Nigel’s. “God, of - of course you will. You’ll get the front row.”

Kath rubbed at her own eyes, smiling tearfully. “That’s - wow.” She stood suddenly, heading to the counter. “I’m making you some tea,” she said over her shoulder. “You’re going to have some tea.”

Nigel chuckled, leaning toward Dan with a wry grin. “She likes to be busy when she gets emotional,” he confided in a low voice.

“I’ve got to admit, though!” said Kath, fiddling with the controls to get the kettle going again. “I’ve been hoping for this for a long time. I mean, I didn’t assume you’d ask, but I was - well, both of us, really - have been expecting a wedding announcement at any time.”

Dan laughed ruefully. “Well...we’ve talked about it for years. I’ve just recently been thinking that it’s about the right time.” His chest felt tight with excitement, and he almost didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. He had come here with no expectations, though he thought he might know their reactions, but this had been so much better than anything he could have imagined.

Kath seated herself again suddenly, her hands folded on the table in front of her. “I’ll get the tea when the kettle goes off,” she said dismissively. “But Dan. Tell us what made you decide that now is the time?”

Dan took a deep breath. “Well.”

It had been a couple of months earlier, in the dog days of summer. In London, it seemed as though all the air in the city hung heavy and sweet and thick, no amount of air-con able to penetrate the lazy warmth of the last bit of August. 

Even in their flat, with fans blasting, reaching any sort of a comfortable temperature seemed next to impossible. Both Dan and Phil and resigned themselves to lounging around, sticky with sweat, and trying to move as little as possible. In the evenings, though, they had fallen into a bit of a routine- after coming together for dinner (almost always takeaway), and lying watching an episode or two of anime, they would go for a walk. It was almost always dark, or on the very verge of twilight, when the two would set out to wander the streets near the flat.

\---

Usually, they’d walk through their neighborhood, the place in London they seemed to run into their fans the least. “They’re all too poor to live here,” Dan would joke, before Phil would scold him.

“We’re too poor to live here,” Phil reminded Dan.

Dan didn’t tell that bit to Phil’s parents.

They never really had a destination in mind, just out of the flat and its soul-sucking heat. It was nice, sometimes, not having anything they had to do, being able to put their millions of projects and side projects and side projects to side projects in the back of their minds. Just focusing on the present moment. As cliche as it sounded, the evening air against Dan’s skin and his boyfriend by his side made him feel whole.

There wasn’t anything really special about that night. It was a perfectly ordinary, too hot day full of mostly procrastination, followed by an evening where neither wanted to turn the oven on to cook so they ordered takeaway again, followed by a late evening stroll through London where they found a new ice cream place.

It took Phil too long to order (he insisted on trying every unfamiliar flavor). By the time they left the shop, Dan was halfway finished with his chocolate cone and Phil had just started his- well, Dan wasn’t sure what flavor it was, but it was a very brightly colored blue. 

They continued their stroll through London, which is when it happened. Again, it wasn’t anything special, really, Dan explained to Kath and Nigel. Just, there was this moment when a little girl ran after her ball into the street and her mother ran after her and suddenly they were across the street in front of Dan and Phil. The girl had fallen, and there was a streak of blood on her knee- not a lot, but from the way her mum ran after her you’d think it was much worse.

“May! What have I said about going in the street?”

Dan froze. He wasn’t good at social interaction, especially with kids, even if children seemed drawn to his rounded face and long, floppy limbs. 

(“They like you because you look like them but taller,” Phil would always tease. “They must hate you because you look so old then,” Dan would always shoot back.)  
Phil moved. He reached the girl’s side before her mum did, and knelt beside her. “Are you alright?” he asked her, in the gentlest voice Dan had heard from him in the three years they had known each other. 

Dan moved to stand behind Phil. The girl- May?- looked up at him and Dan realized her eyes were the exact same color as Phil’s.

“I’m so sorry!” May’s mother rushed to her daughter. “She’s at that age, you know- well.” She looked Dan and Phil up and down. “Maybe not.”

Dan wasn’t sure whether or not to be offended by that. 

“Oh, it’s no problem!” Phil said, his eyes crinkling into a smile. “Is she alright?”

“She’s fine, thank you!” The mother rummaged through her purse, pulling out a box of band-aids. “Here, let’s get you home,” she said to her daughter.

Phil took this as his cue to step back. “Bye!” he waved.

May smiled and waved back.

“She was cute,” Phil said, turning to Dan.

Dan froze again, and melted at the exact same moment.

He had known he wanted a relationship and a home and a life and possibly children with Phil ever since he was nineteen, but that was different that the knowing he felt now, settled warm in his stomach and his bones.

Phil waved a hand in front of Dan’s face. “Dan? You alright?” His eyes were full of concern.

“I love you,” Dan said, because life was too short to not say these things.

Phil relaxed. “I love you too,” he said.

“And so, that’s when I knew now was the right time,” Dan explained to Phil’s parents. “I’ve been planning things for a while now. This was sort of the final step.”

The room was silent. Dan looked up and realized Kath was crying again.

“That’s… really sweet,” she managed, clutching a kleenex.

A smile tugged at Dan’s lips. “He’s really sweet. You did a good job with him.”

They sat in the comfortable silence of family before Kath spoke again.

“So… are you and Phil planning on giving us any grandkids?”


End file.
